Cabinet likely to clear Land Acquisition Bill next week

NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet is likely to clear the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 next week and it is likely to be tabled in Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session itself.

Minister of rural development Jairam Ramesh met with nine cabinet ministers on Thursday to finalise the contents of the draft bill. These include finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, home minister P Chidambaram, minister for tribal affairs Kishore Chand Deo, information minister Ambika Soni, defence minister AK Antony, among others. The cabinet is likely to meet on Monday to discuss the bill.

"The government has expedited the process to get the land acquisition bill cleared. It is likely to be tabled in this session and be cleared in the winter session," said an official in the rural development ministry.

The bill is expected to be referred to the parliamentary standing committee after being tabled.

Currently land acquisition is governed by an archaic legislation passed in 1894. There is no central legislation to mandate compensation norms.

The issue of land acquisition had gained prominence after farmer agitations in Greater Noida over land acquisition and protests by others who have lost their land to development. The new bill, unveiled by the ministry of rural development last month, had tilted its contents heavily in the favour of land owners by introducing clauses to ensure high compensation for land owners.

Moreover, compensation norms cited in the bill would be applicable irrespective of whether the land is acquired by the government or the industry.

Mandating necessity of 80% consensus of the project-affected people for land acquisition by both private and government agencies, buyers will have to shell out up to twice the registration of stamp duty value of the land in urban areas and up to six times in case of rural areas.

The draft bill proposals include a subsistence allowance of 3,000 per family per month for a year and an annuity of 2,000 per family per month for 20 years. Besides, landowners will get 20% of the appreciation in value of their land every time their land changes hands for 10 years. The bill also includes employment provisions.

In case of loss of irrigated land, an acre of irrigated land will have to be provided as compensation over and above the annuity. The Bill also makes a special proposition for tribals, who will get additional 5 acres if they lose irrigated land. In a significant departure from practices followed by several states, the planned bill, readied by the rural development ministry, also seeks to make compensation compulsory even to people whose livelihoods depend on the land being acquired, but is not owned by them.